I like all Jehovah’s Witnesses were discouraged from seeking a higher education. It was so discouraged that I didn’t even give college a second thought. I really took a liking to drafting in high school but knew I wouldn’t make it a carrier because I would need to go to college. I wasn’t concerned at all because I felt the end was just around the corner and I wouldn’t need any higher education. I was confident I would not grow old in this system because the end was so close. As the Governing Body explained it here is a Awake article:

Awake! 1969 May 22 p.15

“If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. … Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in highschool and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way toward its finish, if not actually gone!”

Now I am 48 years old and still the end of this system has not come. I fear I will grow old in this system. I have not planed for retirement. I barely paid any social security because most of the time I was self employed or working for the family business. Now I am in a terrible financial condition facing growing old without any security. I do pray to Jehovah for guidance and help and I put my trust in him. I still can’t help but wonder what I might have been if I was allowed to further my education and plan for growing old.

With Christian love,
Greybeard

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8 Comments on What I Might have Been…

  1. JJ says:

    You make some good points Greybeard. Secular education has been demonized by the Organization a bit too much, and balance is needed. We have to face the fact that this system may go on for a long long time, and they have never apologized for the lives that were damaged by statements like the one you quote above.

    But let me mention though that without Christian parents that loved you and taught you what the Bible says about drug abuse, morality, ethics, etc. you may have turned out to be something much worse- a criminal, an evolutionist with no morality, who knows? Please don’t misunderstand my brother. It’s impossible to say what would have happened had you gone to college to learn drafting or some other field of endeavor. It could have made your life today better, or not…Just something to consider.

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  2. greybeard says:

    Did I forget to mention that I am a criminal? Just kidding! I see your point JJ. There was good ethics and morals taught by JW’s. However isn’t that true of many religions today?

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  3. Amos says:

    I absolutely agree with your sentiments, greybeard. One thing that I am so grateful for, is that I did have God fearing parents, that brought me up with a distinct love for the truth of God’s word. Lokking back, I consider my time in the WTS, a blessing as it did protect me from most of the ill’s of satan’s system, & now I have a very close & special relationship with our Heavenly Father & His dear Son. For some time, I did think that I had wasted much of my life, until I got things into perspective, as I stated above.

    Christian love & blessings to all,

    Amos

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  4. Jayme says:

    A humorous sentiment I’ve heard many older ones say goes something like this: “If I’d known I was going to live this long I’d have taken better care of myself.”

    In a way many of us who have grown up and now older in the “truth” are feeling this way. Its not that we dont appreciate the scriptural guidance we recieved or the love for Jehovah that we developed, but its the fact that we were misled into building our lives on a timeline that just didnt materialize as we were led to believe. Had we known that this system was indeed going to be around for much longer than we thought then we would have most probably made better plans for providing long term for our families and for our old age. Things such as retirement, age related illness and even caring for aged parents were things that just didnt get the attention that they needed.

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  5. JJ says:

    Jayme that’s an outstanding point. I’ve seen a number of friends that never planned for retirement, life insurance, etc. due to always being SURE that the end was just around the corner.

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    • Jayme says:

      Yes, the AWAKE article from ’69 that Greybeard quoted is a prime example. If you were a young one raised by witness parents and surounded by witness family and friends all reinforcing what is written in the WT, why would you not trust them? If from infancy you have been convinced, by those you trust the most, that this is Gods one and only true channel for mankind today, why would you not hang on their every word? I NEVER second guessed it until I was an adult, after they changed the “light” on the 1914 generation that was NOT supposed to pass away. I would have bet my life on it, and I guess to a certain extent I did.

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  6. Jon says:

    Well here I am almost 61, no one will give me a job I deperately need. So I will loose everything and live, I dont know where. Maybe die , I dont care. I had a career I wanted and still do , but now am too old as it takes 2- 4 yrs to achieve. The JWs beliefs got in the way. I was helping others, believing the end was coming soon, just around the corner, any day now, iniment. lol Now its over for me.But others younger can get out and move on and have a good life. No one can help people like us, and Jehovah answers no prayers in this matter. So its just over.

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    • Amos says:

      Bro. Jon, please don’t give up. YHWH will not let you down ever. He will always support those who put their trust in Him. The form of prayer that I have found to be most successful, rewarding & beneficial, is to ask our Father to “supply to us, or instruct us, or guide us”….into what HE knows is best for us, or what we need, or what we should do, etc. The encouraging thing is that He will “never allow the righteous one to totter.”
      We all need to throw our burdens on the Lord, He will carry us through, I can testify to this in my own life.

      WCL, Amos

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